Schedule for paying, and this can be nerve-wracking to deal with.įor many years I operated on net-30 terms - payment due within 30 days Regularly invoice at the start of every month, customers have their own Value a backlog of work, you have a fighting chance at dodging theīeyond having regular ongoing work lies matter of cash flow. By being aggressiveĪbout finding more than one customer, and even making it a point to Notice than the time it takes the phone to ring. One ongoing project, you can find yourself out of work with no more The best way to approach this is to diversify - if you have only This is not personal to your customer - it's just business -īut when your gravy train evaporates without notice, it's very Or when another customer was bought by a bigger enterprise. History stopped on a dime when a customer's customer canceled a project, This has happened to me several times: a sure thing with many years of Just "we don't need you any more" or even just not calling. It doesn't require firing or confrontation, Necessary evil by customers who use them, and it's exceptionallyĮasy to stop using one. You have no job security, even if you think you doĬonsultants - even good consultants - are often considered a Those skills are required, of course, and often help get you in the door,īut the long-term customer relationships on which a consultant depends Suggest that their technical skills will not be their biggest asset. The single biggest surprise to prospective consultants is when I Mainly addresses the consulting relationship. To time have done one-time projects on a contract basis, this paper I mainly operate as a traditional consultant, and though from time Long term relationships are worth it in the long run. To get a deeper focus because of all the context swapping going on, but Unlike the contractor, this involves a lot of juggling when theįluctuating demands of multiple customers comes into play. In a few cases, I am the IT department for several customers,Īnd they use me so they don't have to hire a dedicated person for it. Relationship, sometimes big ones, but the general idea here is that you'reĪn always-available resource they can call on for big matters or small.
There will certainly be projects in the course of a consulting It's more about a long-term relationship than it is about a specific Consulting A "consultant" typically has multiple customers at a time, and Subsequent project, but it's just as often a new project as opposed Project certainly means you'll be given more consideration for a This is not to say that you won't be back: doing a good job on the first Your work), once the contractor has moved on, the focus goes with him. Great deal of focus, and though there is a often a bit of hanger-on workĪfter the project has finished (say, helping the in-house staff integrate Most contractors work on one project at a time, which surely allows a Software, and at the end of the project: you're done and you move on. To write a communications controller, build a website, or modify some Substantial pushback on these definitions, so I urge you to takeĬontracting A "contractor" is typically hired for one project (via a "contract"),Īnd the relationship is often more technical than personal. Generalities rather than pigeonhole-type definitions. My own experience to draw on, so these should be considered broad Touch on two that are at different ends of the spectrum. There are many ways of structuring a self-employed practice, and I'll These sections (except the last) aren't in any particular order. Such as licensure, insurance, and negotiating - there are otherīooks for that, and this isn't trying to be one of them. Guide for everything required by one in or contemplating theĬonsulting business.
To pay somebody for that, and I'm not qualified.įurthermore, I am not even attempting to make this a comprehensive Please note that I am providing observations from my own personalĮxperience, but I am not providing tax or legal advice. I have been asked oftenĪbout the business, and I decided to write this up. My old company, V-Systems, with a friend from college, and actually didīits and pieces of consulting as early as 1982.
I've been a consultant of one form or another since 1985 when I started Or: Why work 8 hours/day for someone else when you can